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Kinnickinnic River Legacy Act Cleanup

The Kinnickinnic River in Milwaukee before contaminated sediment removal. (Click to enlarge)

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Great Lakes
National Program Office and state partner Wisconsin Department of
Natural Resources are celebrated the end of a Great Lakes Legacy
Act project that dredged a section of Milwaukee’s Kinnickinnic
River in 2009. The
Kinnickinnic River project removed around 167,000 cubic yards of
sediment contaminated with PCBs and PAHs (polychlorinated biphenyls
and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) between Becher Street and
Kinnickinnic Avenue on the south side of Milwaukee. All major field operations are
completed.

Federal government and state share costs

Using Great Lakes Legacy Act funds - money set aside by
Congress to clean up polluted sediment (mud) along U.S. shores
of the Great Lakes -- EPA funded 65 percent or $14.3 million of
the $22 million cost of the project. The required nonfederal
share of 35 percent or $7.7 million came from a state bond fund
under the Governor’s Growing Milwaukee Initiative for sediment
cleanup. The special fund was approved by the State Legislature
and signed into law by Gov. Jim Doyle in 2007.

The Kinnickinnic River cleanup is the result of many years
of collaboration between EPA, Army Corps of Engineers, WDNR,
the city and Port of Milwaukee and local stakeholders including
Business Improvement District #35.

You will need Adobe Reader to view some of the files on this page. See EPA's PDF page to learn more.